In addition to substantial and immediate savings on home owner’s insurance, a hurricane retrofit may also save your home and possessions from damage. That may not feel so urgent, but after helping thousands of home owners get help with repairs after a deadly storm, I can say with conviction: Before is better! Prevention is preferable to suffering real damages and facing the long, distressing process required to get those damages repaired and covered by insurance.
Before is better!
It’s easier to prevent damage than get it repaired through your insurance company.
Before Hurricane Andrew struck Florida in 1992, there were more than 400 building codes scattered across the state. These codes were not only lax but loosely enforced. Hurricane Andrew was a wake-up call.
After studying the damage endured by 101,241 homes and the complete destruction of 25,524 others, new building codes were developed. It was not uncommon to find homes with the entire roof blown off. The Florida Building Code (FBC) was adopted in 2002 and now applies to all homes throughout the state. Enforcement was also improved.
This means that if your home was built before 2002, you may have weak or missing roof-to-wall connections. Even if you roof was replaced, and even if the roofers added an extra nail to the hurricane ties to upgrade them to code, they still might not be leveled up as much as they could be for the best safety and insurance savings.
“Andrew Was Here”
The destruction of more than 25,000 homes by Hurricane Andrew in 1992 gave the state of Florida a wake-up call. Building codes were rewritten and strictly enforced, but statewide codes did not take effect until 2002.
Image credit: National Weather Service
What happens if your roof-to-wall connections are substandard?
Even homes with roof connections once deemed acceptable lost their roof when Hurricane Andrew swept through. In a conference paper in 2018, Hurricane Andrew 20 Years Later: What Have We Learned?, the authors Tim Marshall, Ken Gilvary, and Justin Kestner examine how well old hurricane clips and single-wrap straps held up under extreme winds. They wrote, “In many instances, we found inadequate strapping of walls to top plates and top plates to roof trusses. These deficiencies resulted in the loss of most of or the entire roof.”
With the very large sample size of storm-damaged homes due to hurricane Andrew, the experts determined that single wrapped straps were superior to non-wrapped straps or clips. Furthermore, a level up from single wrap straps are double wraps, which became the gold standard for hurricane straps.
The photo below shows the “loss of roof trusses due to inadequate strapping. Straps were nailed to the sides of the trusses instead of being wrapped completely around them.”
Straps nailed to the sides of trusses did not save this roof during Hurricane Andrew.
From Hurricane Andrew 20 Years Later: What Have We Learned?
Florida Building Codes are continually updated, with a goal of adding relevant and significant improvements every 3 years. Nothing will make your property 100% “hurricane proof”, but studies have shown that upgrading hurricane ties not only offers the single most significant improvement, but is actually profitable for the homeowner due to the insurance discounts you will receive every year thereafter.
Disclaimer:
The reader is cautioned that there is no such thing as a “hurricane proof” house.
From Hurricane Retrofit Guide
In 2007, building codes were revised even further to include changes to existing homes. The new code, referred to as Hurricane Mitigation Retrofits (HMR), were added to the FBC. This included the following requirement:
“Roof truss strapping to walls must be verified and added as needed for single family homes permitted prior to March 1, 2002 within the WBDR and with an insured or assessed value of $300,000 or more. If the value of the home exceeds this amount, an additional 15% of the reroofing cost must be expended on roof to wall connections, including the cost of inspection.”
The above code means that roofers are obligated to add extra nails if needed when they replace roofs. This does not mean they will upgrade the roof-to-wall attachments to a level that insurance companies require to apply maximum discounts. Roofers are only required to bring the attachments up to minimum code requirements. It is up to the roofing companies discretion if they want to offer addition options, and how much they will charge for the extra work.
Roofers, Florida Building Code Department, and Insurance companies are all separate entities. In this case, a little government regulation has ensured that they all cooperate to a degree so that homeowners receive better safety standards and do not get priced gouged in the process.
Our SecureMyRoof company is here to make you aware of these rules, which are not widely known or advertised. Our goal is to stay busy offering local residents this win-win option.
If the safety of your home is not reason enough, consider this:
The average insurance savings for a hurricane strap retrofit is about 35%. This is $300 or more per month for a 1600 SF house in Merritt Island or Cocoa Beach.
Let this sink in – every month that you wait to perform the upgrade could be costing you $300 or more in extra premiums that you must pay to your insurance company. Think about what you can do with that extra $40,000.00 in 10 years time if you save it! This is assuming your insurance rates do not continue to climb, which is likely, but at least you will always be paying 35% less than you would be otherwise. All you neighbors who do not get the retrofit will be paying 50% more than you every year.
Determining if a hurricane strap retrofit is right for you is free to find out. Acting on this information can strengthen the integrity of your house and be profitable!
We can help!
Call us at (321) 307-7320 for a free estimate.
We will evaluate your current roof-to-wall connections and help you plan your next step.
Want to learn more?
Below are a few reading recommendations from our crew:
30 Years Later: Hurricane Andrew Redesigned Modern Building Codes
By Joshua Huff
The USGlass News Network
August 25, 2022
Hurricane Andrew 20 Years Later: What Have We Learned?
Conference Paper, 2018
by Tim Marshall, Ken Gilvary, and Justin Kestner
Hurricane Retrofit Guide
Florida Division of Emergency Management, Bureau of Mitigation
The 2023 Florida Building Code for Existing Buildings, 8th Edition
See Chapter 17 for information on Hurricane Mitigation Retrofitting